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Hieroglyph Project

edited by Ed Finn & Kathryn CramerHieroglyph is a publication, collective conversation and incubator for the “moonshot ecosystem” bringing together writers, scientists, engineers, technologists, industrialists and other creative, synoptic thinkers to collaborate on bold ideas in a protected space for creative play, science, and imagination.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

What about a Toxics Map?

ANOTHER READER QUESTION:

kathyrn,
have you found a site that would have the results of the toxic water in
New Orleans. My husband has been down there since last Tuesday trying
to get the MCI telephone sites up and running. Passed the worrying
stage about the gun shots around him but now am worried about the toxic
water problem and long term effects.

An extant toxics map sounds to me a bit ahead of the data we have right now by a good bit. But it is something that should
exist, even if it doesn't. I have been talking about the need for
information on the water depths and water movement with the tides and
other factors, and still haven't come up with a solution for that yet,
but her question is an important one. Anyone know if there have been
surveys of toxics. I recall that preliminary looks seemed to suggest
that the toxics problem was not as bad as it might be, but that could
have changed and might have been wrong in the first place. What can be
done to get this information together?

(Image of chemical sheen on the water courtesy of Shawn McBride. I think it's a NOAA image acquired through Google Earth with overlays; I gather it's a search he did for someone who enquiring about their house.)

Also, if you can load a really large image, have a look at this NOAA image, just to get the scale. I'm trying to find someone's house on an area of the city not covered by the Digital Globe images, and I'm a little lost, because NOAA doesn't preserve orientation in its interface. But the sheen, oh my God . . .

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What about a Toxics Map?

ANOTHER READER QUESTION:

kathyrn,
have you found a site that would have the results of the toxic water in
New Orleans. My husband has been down there since last Tuesday trying
to get the MCI telephone sites up and running. Passed the worrying
stage about the gun shots around him but now am worried about the toxic
water problem and long term effects.

An extant toxics map sounds to me a bit ahead of the data we have right now by a good bit. But it is something that should
exist, even if it doesn't. I have been talking about the need for
information on the water depths and water movement with the tides and
other factors, and still haven't come up with a solution for that yet,
but her question is an important one. Anyone know if there have been
surveys of toxics. I recall that preliminary looks seemed to suggest
that the toxics problem was not as bad as it might be, but that could
have changed and might have been wrong in the first place. What can be
done to get this information together?

(Image of chemical sheen on the water courtesy of Shawn McBride. I think it's a NOAA image acquired through Google Earth with overlays; I gather it's a search he did for someone who enquiring about their house.)

Also, if you can load a really large image, have a look at this NOAA image, just to get the scale. I'm trying to find someone's house on an area of the city not covered by the Digital Globe images, and I'm a little lost, because NOAA doesn't preserve orientation in its interface. But the sheen, oh my God . . .

Mapping for the masses : Nature Commentary: Mapping disaster zones
Google Earth software proved effective during relief efforts in New Orleans and Pakistan, say Illah Nourbakhsh and colleagues. Is there more to be gained than lost from opening up disaster operations to the wider public?
doi:10.1038/439787a